


A Simple Mission

by silver_drip



Category: Iron Man - All Media Types
Genre: Afghanistan, Arms Dealing, Red Room, Spying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-26
Updated: 2015-03-26
Packaged: 2018-03-19 18:11:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3619404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silver_drip/pseuds/silver_drip
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha is in Afghanistan the same time Tony is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Simple Mission

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Temul](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Temul/gifts).



> Hope you're not getting sick, Temul!

Her skin was lightly tanned and her hair dyed a few shades just shy of black. Natasha was wearing brown contacts to cover up her light, foreign eyes. No one would recognize her, even without the scarf that covered the majority of her face.

She was waiting at a small restaurant and getting strange looks for it. This wasn’t her usual sort of mission. Normally she was either extracting information or ending someone’s life, never arms deals, but when the Kremlin called she answered without question.

Finally her contact showed up. He was a bald man by choice rather than age and his build was just muscular enough to intimidate the average person. Natasha wasn’t average though and had already thought of a hundred ways to kill him without catching the attention of the other people in the restaurant.

She wordlessly slipped him the list of weapons the Red Room wanted along with the amount they were willing to pay.

Raza, her contact, read it over as she watched him carefully. They had never met before, but she could tell that he was far too excited for what the situation called for. She had read the weapons list and knew the money they were offering in return was reasonable, but nothing worth grinning about.

“And what would your comrades pay me for a Jericho missile?” Raza asked while folding the paper and slipping it into his pocket. Natasha kept her expression carefully blank despite the majority of her face being hidden and her intuition flaring.

“We enjoy subtler weaponry, but I’ll talk to my handlers and give you an answer when you deliver on our current business,” Natasha said while standing. Her hand disappeared for a split second into her modest, traditional outfit. She holds out her other hand. Raza looks at it for a moment before standing up and shaking her hand. In a subtle movement she clipped the small, innocuous device onto the hem of his shirt.

They part ways and Natasha does not second guess her decision. Raza may be one of the Red Room’s best arms dealers, but she had no doubt that the Kremlin would prefer to have the actual source rather than a go between.

* * *

The tracker had Raza located in the middle of nowhere.

Natasha debated her options.

She wasn’t going to call her superiors and let them in on her little theory. If she was wrong her little world could get a lot more painful.

If she went to the mysterious location it meant risking botching the whole deal and possibly getting herself killed in a less than pleasant manner.

If she brought Tony Stark to the Red Room the rewards would be endless, perhaps even enough to get her out of this business, enough to gain her freedom.

* * *

It was tough work, approaching an outcrop of rocks unseen when everything around it was barren desert, but Natasha had somehow managed it.

The sun had just started rising and Natasha could already feel the heat prickling at her skin. She’d have to make this quick or otherwise risk having to hide here until night fell again.

Natasha slipped between the oversized rocks before spotting large crates of weapons, perfect for her to maneuver around unseen. She moved in closer, being able to hear some of the men that were milling about. They were speaking Dari, a language she had only started learning a month and a half ago. From what she could tell the pair she was listening to was talking about some sort of drink.

She silently moved on, staying low and hidden away. She spotted the entrance to a cave, but it was guarded far too well for her to get in without either killing someone or giving herself away.

Natasha listened to another group of machine gun carrying men, but once again they were talking about inconsequential things.

A trickle of annoyance was starting to invade her controlled emotions, but then she spotted Raza. The arms dealer and terrorist began shouting at one of his men who was carrying two trays of food.

The name Stark was all the confirmation she needed.

Natasha slipped back into the desert and away before the sun could touch her skin.

* * *

After she got back to her safe room in the city Natasha silently debated what she wants to tell her handler. She knew the US military was still vehemently searching for Tony Stark so smuggling him out of the country would be no easy task.

It wouldn’t be hard for her to take down all those men, but she still ran the risk of injury, capture, or death. Possibly all three.

She’d also have to explain why she even knew he was there.

Regardless, her handler wouldn’t be calling her until tomorrow afternoon. Until then she just had to lay low.

* * *

Natasha was doing a handstand pushup the following day when something on the muted TV caught her attention. The world spun smoothly as she righted herself effortlessly. She sat on the pillows that were the only real furniture in the room other than the TV and lamp. She didn’t bother to unmute it, easily reading the headlines and lips of the reporters.

Tony Stark had been found late yesterday wandering the deserts of Afghanistan.

Her golden ticket to freedom had escaped.

She pursed her lips, but was otherwise unaffected.

Natasha went to start working out again when her burner phone rang. She answered it and recognized the voice of her handler. She responded to his code automatically and listened to his orders without saying anything. She was used to not questioning the Red Room.

After ending the call Natasha stared at the TV screen a moment longer before turning it off and gathering her few belongings. She was off to Budapest on just another mission.


End file.
